Television apparatus



Aug. 29, 1933.

A. J. CAWLEY 1,925,039

TELEVISION APPARATUS Filed July 22, 1929 mmmmm BIWITIHHIHHIWTIIT INVENTO Patented Aug. 29, 1933 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE TELEVISION APPARATUS Aloysius J. Cawley, ,Pittston, Pa.

Application July 22, 1929. Serial No. 380,202 18 Claims. (01. 173 s This application is a continuation in part application of my application Serial Number 50,528, for Electro optical system, filed August 15, 1925, and that specification and drawing is 5 made a part of this application.

The invention relates generally to television or the transmission of visual images from one place to another by means of wireless apparatus, however the use of wires is not excluded from this process.

More particularly, it is concerned with the synchronous movement of two radial arms, one at the transmitting station and the other at the receiving station. The arm at the transmitting station carries a number of photoelectric cells suitably connected through a contact device with the transmitting station in such manner as to transmit a series of electromagnetic waves varied in accordance with a visual image in whose 29 plane the arm rotates. At the receiving station this image-varied train of electromagnetic waves is translated into an image-varied electric current. This current is supplied to a number of lamps carried on the rotating radial arm at the receiving station to cause them to be illuminated to various degrees at a proper moment while said lamps are rotated by said arm to produce a visual image corresponding to that at the transmitting station. Both cells and lamps 30 describe a series of interrupted, concentric circles.

A rotating contact member is provided which makes contact at the transmitting station with but one photoelectric cell at a time and also one at the receiving station which makes contact with but one lamp on the rotating arm at a time.

This contact member may be rotated at the same speed as the arms but in a direction opposite thereto, or at a speed which is a multiple of the speed of the arms, as desired. The apparatus has therefore, great flexibility.

At the receiving station, the apparatus uses all of the light of all of the lamps on the radial arm in contra-distinction to part of the light of one lamp (and that a very small part) as used in the present day systems of television.

Th contact member is preferably in the form of a rotating disk.

Ordinary glow lamps such as those used in the ordinary automobile spark testers may be used. They are very cheap and do not get out of order, and require no attention. They are light and may be rotated on the arm at enormous speeds. For a more complete understanding of the essential.

invention reference is to be had to the following description and claims taken in connection with the accompanying drawing, in which like characters of reference denote corresponding parts in all of the views, and in which,

Figure 1 is a plan view of a receiver showing the revolvable arm carrying the lamps and the revolvable disk carrying the contact configurations, such as ridges. A fluorescent screen is also shown in this figure which may be used if desired, to augment the action of the retina in carrying out its function of persistence of vision.

Figure 1a is a detailed View of the means of making electrical contact. I

Figure 1b is a view of a further modification of the means of making electrical contact.

Figure 2 shows an elevational view of the transmitter and illustrates the arm carrying the radially arranged group of photoelectric cells in the plane of the light image together with the contact disk and revolving means; Suitable circuitconnections are also shown.

Figure 3 shows an elevational view of the receiver, illustrating the means for rotating the arm and disk, thecircuitconnections coacting 0 with the contact disk, the fluorescent screen and a projecting means which may be used if desired.

As the receiver is the part which the general public will use most, it must be made of very cheap, readily procurable elements in order to place the apparatus in the homes of all those who desire it. Many more receivers will be manufactured than transmitters. Therefore, I will first describe the receiver.

, Figure l is a plan View of the receiver, and illustrates the portion of the apparatus at which the picture is to be displayed. A fluorescent screen 14 is shown in the form of an octagon. It may or may not be used. Its use is not absolutely It actsto retain the record of the flashes of the lamps which occur in the production of the visual image, and assists the eye in executing the function of the persistence of vision. It retains the image from one revolution of the arm to another. In other words, it retains one of the complete pictures until the next is traced upon it in fluorescent light. The screen is shown placed upright for viewing the picture. Behind this screen is an arm 6 carrying a row of neon lamps, 4, 5. Small incandescent lamps may be used, or any other glow lamp besides the neon, such as helium etc. The arm corresponds to the diameter of the circle through which it rotates. This arm is pivoted and fixed to shaft 2 and is rotated by it. The neon lamps are shown at a greater speed than a thick one.

disposed as one radius of the circle, that is, they occupy half of the arm. However, they may be placed all of the way across it. They may be placed alternately. Those shown are shown spaced, and wherever there is a space a lamp maybe placed on the opposite side of the arm to illuminate what would be a dark circle when the arm is rotated. However, they are shown as being located on one side of the arm. Wire 7' designates a plurality of wires each of which connects to a lamp and thus connects the lamps to a series of brushes. Each lamp is connected to a brush it, it etc., by wire 7'. a single glass tubing 5 containing a number of pairs of electrodes. The row of contact brushes are located under arm 6 in the illustrations, but in this figure they are indicated by h in the left half of the circle. The contact ridge i is shown in contact with one brush near the center of the circle. This row of brushes is intended to be directly under the lamps as shown in the two other illustrations, but is indicated here for clearness. Attention is particularly directed to the stepped arrangement of the'brushes, as this is the factor that causes but one lamp or photoelectric cell to be supplied with current at any instant, and is very important. The ridges z, 1" etc. are simply raised on the surface of metal disk 8, and may be stamped in if desired. A disk may be cut and stamped in a'fraction of a second in manufacture. The thickness of the disk 8 and the height of the ridges i, 2" etc. need not be that shown. A very thin plate is desirable as it'may be rotated However, if desired, a heavy rim may be given to the disk to give it a speed-governing, speed uniformity, fly wheel eifect. The arm need not be rotated at a speed greater than fifteen revolutions per sec- 0nd, but the disk may be geared to go many times as fast as that. Each multiple of the speed of the arm that the disk attains means greater definition to the picture. For instance if the disk goes three times as fast as the arm, there will be two extra sets of illuminated radii of the circle shown in Figure 1. This will be better understood later.

" Figure 1a shows more clearly the manner in which the contact brushes h, h, h" are stepped with relation to contact ridge 2', so that but one brush makes contact at a time.

Figure 1b shows that theridges i, etc. may

have a curved configuration and the brushes ar ranged in a straight line. In the operation of the receiver, arm 6 is made to rotate at a uniform speed, say fifteen revolu-' cles will be described. Each. lamp traces a circle consisting of bright flashes or dots. Each lamp is illuminated when it touches a contact ridge and extinguished when not in contact with a ridge,

the circle described is therefore more or less interrupted. The intensity of illumination corresponding to the image to be produced is of course produced in the luminosity of the circle described by any particular lamp. The space between contact ridges 2, etc., may or may not be covered with insulating material, such as bakelite, shellac, bitumen, pitch, mica composition, etc. however, as the ridge is raised, air insulation may be used.

'It is evident that many different types of contact configurations may be given to the surface of disk 8 besides that shown. Contact points may The lamps may be be used in various designs. It would be useless to illustrate all of them here; they are all included in this specification and the appended claims.

Figure 2 is an elevational View of the transmitter. The image is produced by lens element 13. Disposed in the plane of the light image and supported on arm 6 are photoelectric cells 12. A condenser a may be connected in parallel with each of those cells. Obviously, in a television system, there is but one transmitter, and as this is at the central station where costly apparatus is not prohibited, it may be made very large and elaborate. The path of the current through the transmitter is as follows. It enters by wire a, to crush 71., to collector ring 0 which is insulated from the shaft, the insulation being shown at e as the ring is shown cut away. It then passes to wire (I. to passage f in shaft 2, and indicated by dotted lines to end of shaft 2, where it emerges and passes along the row of photoelectric cells 12, acting as their common supply wire. The current passes into one at a time of the cells 12, leaves by wire 7', to brush h, to ridge 1'. But one brush functions at any one instant. Ridge i is of course a part of disk 8. The current passes thence to shaft '2; to collector ring it which is in firm contact with shaft 2 (shown held with a set screw). From ring is it passes to wire m and thence to the radio transmitter to be broadcasted.

Arm 6 is rotated at approximately a speed of fifteen revolutions per second. Motor 1 revolves shaft 2 and arm 6 which is firmly attached to it. The cells 12 will of course rotate with the arm, and describe a series of concentric circles in the plane of the visual image to be broadcasted, and thus will have an opportunity of receiving varying charges of electricity in accordance with the varying light intensity of the image. When the arm is rotated, as the cells are connected but one at a time to the circuit of the broadcasting station, and as'there is an arm carrying lamps at the receiving station revolving in synchronism with this it is evident that the lamps at the receiving station will synchronously receive a current impulse equivalent to that generated in the corresponding photoelectric cell at the transmitter.

Disk 8 may be a stationary member of the apparatus, as shown in my application referred to above, or in the present apparatus it may be made stationary by for instance, removing one of the gear wheels, such as 9. However, it is shown as a revolving member, as this is a very important feature of the invention. Alternator armatures complicated commercial electrical machines have been made to revolve at 300 revolutions per second. The arm 6 need not rotate at a speed greater than fifteen revolutions per second, but

the disk may be rigidly connected to it by gearing to give the disk a speed greatly in excess of this. This is very important to describe. For instance, the ridges may be placed at wide intervals apart on the disk so that a row of many lamps may be placed on the arm 6 and each have a brush in contact at one particular instant only with a ridge 1'. The large number of brushes will necessitate wider spacing of ridges 2' due to the stepping of the brushes to avoid simultaneous contact with a ridge by more than one ridge. This spacing of the ridges would mean a reduced number of radial luminous streaks (produced by contact with a passing ridge by the radial row of brushes illuminating correspondingly their row of lights). However, if now we so proportion wheels '7 and 10 as to give the disk a speed which is a large (it)v multiple of the radial arm 6 speed (remembering that we synchronize with radial arm 6, and that a large heavy machine may use a speed of 300 revolutions per second) for each multiple of the arm speed we have an entirely new set of radial luminous lines which will be equally spaced between the luminous radial lines correspondingly to those actually on the disk. The increased speed of the disk will act as a fly Wheel to the entire apparatus. If we use a speed of 15 R. P. S. for the arm, and an opposite speed of 150 R. P. S. for the disk, and a row of 24 lamps, we will have a 48 line picture with ten extra sets of luminous radial lines, i. e., the interruptions will be so fine in the circle as to approach the appearance of a half tone picture. Of course the disk and arm may rotate with equal and opposite directions, if desired. I am simply calling attention to the extreme flexibility of the apparatus. Motor 1 revolves shaft 2, gear wheel 3, collector rings 0 and l: and arm 6 carrying photoelectric cells 12. Wheel 3 transmits motion to wheel 9 to shaft 2a to belt wheel 10. Belt 11 transmits motion from wheel 16 to belt wheel '7, and thus causes disk 8 which is firmly attached to wheel 7 to rotate, in the opposite direction to the arm. The contact ridges are shown at i, 2', etc., g is the insulation which may or may not be used. 15 is any suitable frame.

Figure 3 is an elevational View of the receiver. Motor 1 rotate shaft 20, which in turn caries a gear wheel which meshes with gear wheel 311 on shaft 2, which is caused to rotate thereby. Shaft 2 has firmly mounted and fixed to it gear wheels 3a and 3c collector ring 0 which is insulated from the shaft, collector ring is which is not insulated from the shaft, and arm 6 which is made of nonconducting material such as wood. Shaft 2 has also loosely mounted upon it disk 8, which rotates on this shaft without any end play or vibration. t is loosely mounted in the sense that it'will rotate freely on the shaft. Firmly fixed to the disk as by screws is gear wheel '7, which imparts motion to the disk. Gear wheel 30 meshes with gear wheel 3b, which is mounted upon the same shaft 2b with gear wheel 91). Wheel 9b meshes with the wheel 95. which is mounted upon the same shaft 2a with gear wheel 10. Wheel 10 meshes with gear wheel 7, and causes the latter to move disk 8 in the opposite direction to arm 6 which carries the illuminants, such as neon glow lamps, 4, 5, etc. By varying the proportions of wheels 7 and 10, disk 8 may be caused to be rotated at any multiple of the speed of arm 6.

The amplified, image-varied current which has been received from the wireless receiving station is led into the televisor receptor by means of wire a, to brush it, to collector ring 0, to wire (1 through shaft to neon lamps on arm 6, from lamps by wires such as 9', to brushes j, 7", etc. to ridges i. Brushes h and ridges 2' limit contact to but one lamp at any instant. From 2' to disk body 8 to shaft 2, to collector ring R: to brush 2 to wire m to external circuit.

It will be seen that disk 8 is charged at all times with the image-varied current, and is fed to the lights one at a time in what may be termed radial strokes. On arm 6 there is a row of brushes h, it, etc., which make contact with ridges 2'' etc., of disk 8. These ridges are so designed that but one brush, It makes contact at any one instant with ridge 2, and this means that only one lamp 4: will be lighted at any instant of time. Of course the intensity of the current will produce a corresponding intensity of illumination in lamp 4 in accordance with the intensity of illumination of that portion of the image that is in contact with the corresponding photoelectric cell at the transmitter.

By studying the configurations of disk 8 in Figure 1, it will be seen that as arm 6 is rotated at say fifteen times per second, and remembering that but one brush it, etc., can be brought in contact with ridges, 1, etc., at a time, and consequently but one light will be illuminated at a time, there will be a series of broken, concentric circles in luminosity, each corresponding to the path of one neon lamp on arm 6, the breaks being due to the intervals between the ridges i. It is to be remembered that there will be a more or less fusing or blending of the luminous interruptions in the circles. Figure l at a shows that the brushes h, h, it, etc., are staggered or stepped with reference to ridge i, so that at any instant only one lamp will be illuminated. Figure 1 at a also illustrates the fact that as ridge 2' moves with the rotation of the disk 8, the brushes h, it, etc.,

will successively come in contact with ridges, 2', etc., and furnish current to the corresponding lamp 4. Disk 8 may be in the form of a spoked wheel, or as a disk having wires placed radially in lieu of ridges i. Those are some of the many possible forms it may assume.

It will therefore be seen that as arm 6 is rotated at, say fifteen times per second, the image will appear as a diffused, illuminated electric sign in which there is a radial building up of the diffused, interrupted, luminous, concentric circles. radial illumination will slant somewhat away from a true radius, due to the stepping ofthe contact brushes described above. Figure 1 at b also ilustrates one of the many possible variations which covers a curving of the ridge Land which employs a straigh radial row of contact brushes, h, h, it", etc. 1

The disk 8 may be designed as stationary and be attached to the frame of the apparatus as in the above mentioned application, or it may be made stationary at will by, for instance, removing wheel 9a, 9b, or other. However, in the figures, it is shown as rotating, as this is a Very important feature of the apparatus. It is rotated in a direction opposite to arm 6. This gives a relative speed of arm and disk of the sum of the speeds of both. Disk 8 should be always rotated at a multiple of arm 6 speed. It is desirable to make the disk as thin as possible. In the more expensive machines it will be given a speed that is many times that of the arm 6. If it goes twenty times as fast as the arm 6, the relative speedis 21 times arm speed of three hundred and fifteen revolutions per second if the arm moves at fifteen RPS. This speed is about that of heavy armatures that have been constructed in the electrical industry. I am merely showing the great flexibility of the device. The speed of 20 RPS. would mean twenty new sets of luminous radialoid lines added to the reproduced image, equaling if not excelling the luminous streaks of the pin-hole disk method now possible for laboratory methods. Of courseI use all of the illumination of all of the lamps in contradistinction to the infinitesimal part of the illumination of one lamp used in the laboratory disk method.

The disk may have a fiy wheel rim if desired. However, this is not essential. It is well to compare this disk to the buzzers" which children construct of a circle of tin with two holes in its center through which two pieces of string pass. This buzzer is caused to move withimmense The speeds giving high pitched musical sounds when only a few teeth are placed or cut on its margin and held in contact with a piece of paper etc. A buzz saw is another illustration. Therefore, I am directing attention to a thin metal disk with stamped ridges on its surface, and which can be manufactured by a machine by the thousands every day and sold for almost a few cents. Of course, the drawing illustra'es a disk and arm rotating at equal and opposite speeds.

The picture may be viewed directly from the luminous lamps 4, or a fluorescent screen may be interposed and placed just in front of the lamps. This will cause the luminous impressions to be retained on the screen for a time after the lamp producing the impression has been momentarily extinguished. It thus acts as a canvas upon which is painted a series of luminous pictures, fifteen complete pictures per second, each picture fading out in time for the next picture to be painted. It thus acts to assist or augment the function of persistence of vision of the eye which is so important in television. If it is desir d to project the image upon a screen, the projection lenses are indicated by 13, which may be used either with or without screen 1%.

Emphasis is placed on the neon lamps described in connection with arm 6 in the above mentioned application, but th invention is not limited thereto. Small incandescent lamps may be used. Attention is directed to the cheapness orneon tubes as sold on the market for spark testing purposes. It is also directed to the great fidelity of neon in indicating the instantaneous variations in intensity of a light source. The neon lamp may take the form of a glass tube laid horizontally on the radial arm 6 and a number of paired electrodes placed in the tube, each pair of electrodes being connected by a pair of wires one of which leads to the corresponding brush it.

Attention is directed to the fact that the disk may have ridges 1', etc., in the form of Wires stretched across its face.

Having described my invention, I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent:

1. The process of television which consists in moving a number of photoelectric cells in a series of concentric circles in an image area at a transmitting station, intermittently supplying current to but one of said cells at any instant to produce and transmit an image-variedcurrent, moving a number of lamps synchronously with said cells throughout image area at a receiving station, said lamps thus describing a series of concentric circles in said image area, said image area and said circles being coextensive, intermittently supplying said imagevaried current to but one of lamps to synthesize a visual image corresponding to the image at said transmitting station.

2. A television receiver consisting of a rotating arm carrying a plurality of lamps, and a corresponding plurality of brushes connected to said lamps, a contact disk rotating in opposite'directions to said arm and making intermittent contact with said brushes and acting to supply an image varied current to said lamps to form an image consisting of a plurality of luminous points of varying intensity, means for rotating said and said disk in opposite directions.

3. A television receiver consisting of a rotatable arm carrying a plurality of lamps and associated contact brushes, a contact disk coacting with said brushes and rotatable in opposite direction to said arm and acting to supply an imagevaried current to said lamps one at a time, means for rotating said arm and disk to produce an image consisting of a plurality of luminous points of varying intensity, a fluorescent screen adjacent said rotating lamps to retain luminous impressions of the varying intensity of luminosity of said lamps to produce a visual image.

4. A television transmitter consisting of a shaft carrying a radial arm supporting photoelectric cells and suitably connected associated contact brushes, contact means consisting of a disk provided with radial contact elements acting to interruptedly connect but one of said cells to a current source at a time, means for rotating said shaft and arm through an entire image plane at one revolution, suitable gearing rotating said contact means in opposite direction to said disk, to produce an image-varied electric current.

5. A television receiver consisting of a rotating group of lamps in the plane of an image, said lamps describing a series of concentric circles while rotati g in said image plane, each of said lamps being connected to a brush, a contact disk provided with raised portions to'make interrupted contact with said brushes for connecting but one lamp at a time to an image-varied current in order to produce an consisting of a plurality of dots of varying intensity by the variation of illumination of said rotating lamps when traversed by said image-varied current, means for rotating said lamps.

6. A television receiver consisting of a rotating group of lamps in an image plane, said lamps describing a series of concentric circles While 1'0- tating in said image plane, intermittent contact means for connecting but one lamp at a time to an imagevaried electric current, means for rotating said lamps to cover the entire image plane at one revolution, to produce a visual. image consisting of a plurality of luminous points from said image-varied electric current, and means for projecting said image upon a screen.

7. A television receiver con isting of a rotating group of lamps in an image plane, said lamps de-' scribing a series of concentric circles while rotating in said image plane, intermittent contact means for connecting but one lamp at a time to an image-varied electric current, means for rotating said lamps to cover the entire image plane at a revolution, to produce a visual image consisting of a plurality of luminous points of varying intensity from said image-varied current, a fiuroescent screen adjacent said lamps, and means for projecting the said image upon a screen.

8. A shaft carrying an arm supporting a plurality of lamps suitably connected to a plurality of contact brushes, a contact disk making interrupted contact with but one of said plurality of brushes at any instant, means for rotating said shaft and lamps, gear wheels causing said disk to rotate in a direction opposite to said lamps, circuits for conveying an image-varied current to said lamps through said disk and brushes to produce a visual image consisting of a plurality of luminous points of varyin intensity by their variation in intensity and motion.

9. A television system consisting of two synchronously moving radial arms moving throughout i1 age planes, one of said arms and one of said images being at a transmitting station, and the other of said arms and said images being at the receiving station, a plurality of photoelectric cells being carried by said arm at the said transmitting station, and a plurality of lamps being carried by said arm at said receiving station, said cells and said lamps thus describing a series of concentric circles throughout said image planes, a contact brush connected to each of said photoelectric cells at said transmitting station and a contact brush being connected to each of said lamps at the receiving station, two contact disks, one at said transmitting station and one at said receiving station to make intermittent contact with said brushes to intermittently connect said photoelectric cells and said lamps in order to reconstruct an image at said receiving station consisting of a plurality of luminous points of varying intensity.

10. The process of television consisting of forming a visual image, intermittently converting the light of said image into corresponding imagevaried electric current at successive, consecutive points on a series of concentric circles throughout said image area.

11. The process of television consisting of forming a visual image, intermittently converting the light of said image into corresponding image varied electric current at successive, consecutive points on a series of concentric circles through out said image area and converting said imagevaried electric current into corresponding image varied electric wave trains.

12. The process of television reception consisting of receiving image-varied current, consecutively and intermittently converting said imagevaried electric current into corresponding imagevaried light at successive, consecutive points on a series of concentric circles throughout an image area to form an image consisting of a series of concentrically arranged light points of varying intensity.

13. The process of television reception consisting of receiving image-varied electromagnetic waves, converting said image-varied electromagnetic waves into corresponding image-varied electric current, consecutively and intermittently converting said image-varied current into corresponding image-varied light at successive, consecutive points on a series of concentric circles throughout an image area to form an image consisting of a series of concentrically arranged light points of varying intensity.

1%. A television transmitter consisting of an image forming optical element, a shaft, a rotatable element fixed to said shaft, a plurality of photoelectric cells in the plane of said image and carried upon said rotatable element, said cells being arranged on said element from the center of rotation to the periphery of said member; a plurality of contact brushes carried on said rotatable element, each of said brushes being connected with one of said cells, a commutating disk in intermittent contact with said brushes, said contact disk being concentrically mounted upon and freely movable upon said shaft, suitable gearing for rotating said rotatable element and said commutating disk in opposite directions and suitable conductors connected to said cells and said commutator disk to carry oif the image-varied current from said cells.

15. A television receiver consisting of a shaft, a rotatable element fixed to said shaft, a plurality of image-variable light sources carried on said rotatable element in the plane of an image, said sources being arranged on said element from the center of rotation of said element to the periphery thereof; a plurality of contact brushes carried on said rotatable element each of said brushes being connected with one of said light sources; a com mutating disk in intermittent contact with said brushes, said disk being concentrically mounted upon and freely movable upon said shaft, suitable gearing for rotating said shaft with said rotatable element and said commutating disk in opposite directions, suitable conductors connected to said light sources and said commutating disk to convey image-varied current intermittently to said light sources in order to form an image consisting of a series of concentric light points of varied intensity.

16. A television transmitter consisting of an image forming optical element, a shaft, a rotatable element fixed to said shaft, a plurality of photoelectric cells in the area of said image and carried on saidrotatable element, said cells being arranged on said element from the center of rotation to the periphery of said element; a plurality of contact brushes carried on said rotatable element, each of said brushes being connected with but one of said photoelectric cells, a stationary commutating disk in intermittent contact with said brushes, a motor for rotating said rotatable element and suitable conductors connected to said cells and said commutating disk to carry off the image varied current from said cells.

17. A television receiver consisting of a rotatable element, a plurality of image-varied light sources carried on said rotatable element in an image area, said sources being arranged on said element from the center of rotation of said element to the periphery thereof, a plurality of contact brushes carried on said rotatable element, each of said brushes being connected with but one of said sources, a stationary commutating disk in intermittent contact with said brushes, a motor for rotating said rotatable element, suitable conductors connected to said light sources and said commutating disk to convey image-varied current intermittently to said light sources in order to form an image consisting of a series of concentric light points of varied intensity.

18. In a television apparatus in which a plurality of photoelectric elements are moved through an image area, means for supporting and moving said photoelectric elements through said area, a plurality of contact brushes connected one to each of said photoelectric elements and carried on said supporting means, a movable commutating element adapted to move in a direction opposite to said supporting means, said commutating element being provided with a plurality of contact ridges each of which make successive contact with each of said brushes, means for conveying electric current to said photoelectric elements and means for moving said supporting means and said commutating means in opposite directions in order to form an image consisting of a plurality of light points of varied intensity.

ALOYSIUS J. CAWLEY. 

